035 
were engraven the names of so many gods, but without 
pictures or effigies. No sort of idol was more common than 
that of oblong stones erected, and thence called xiove s -, 
pillars." In the East countries they were exceedingly 
frequent, and were called in Phenicia, @xi~v\ix, " Beetyli." 
This name is very remarkable, as being a Grecised form of 
" Bethel," the " House of God," which was the name given by 
Jacob to the pillar that he set up and anointed, showing 
that the stone, in its first intention, was really an emblem 
or symbol of divinity. 
In Arabia, according to Maximus Tyrius, Mercury was 
worshipped under the symbol of a square stone. Venus of 
Paphos, and Alitta in Arabia, w r ere worshipped with impure 
rites, under the form of a white pyramid. It w^as a black 
conical stone that was brought to Rome by the Emperor 
Heliogabalus, as the statue, or, rather, the Bethel of the sun. 
The most sacred oath among the Romans was " Per J ovem 
Lapidem." 
So also Bacchus (or, as he is often called, "Iacchus") is 
mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus as being figured among 
the Thebans by a pillar only. Bacchus or Dionysus was 
probably the autumnal personification of the sun, " HXios o» 
Aiowrov truAwru xccXiovtiv" (Manob. Satur.) Thebes was the 
city to which (according to the Greek legends) the Tyrian 
Cadmus came, bringing from Phenicia the Cadmean alphabet, 
and with it probably Phenician customs and ideas. 
The very name " Iacchus " being a Grecised form of I An, 
"the greatest of the gods," show T s some connection with that 
land, w T here the great name w T as known ; and we know that 
Mount Carmel had a great reputation, even in Greece, as 
Pythagoras studied there for some time. 
That upright stones were objects of worship in Britain, 
is proved by various edicts against their being worshipped. 
Stone worship was condemned by Theodore, Archbishop 
